The idea of combining subsidized and non-subsidized housing in the same development to obtain a healthy mix of households from different income groups is not without precedent.
Chicago successfully used the strategy to help revitalize many of its blighted neighborhoods and jump-start a building boom that has spread throughout the city in just five years.
Last year, more new homes were built in Chicago than in its suburbs - an amazing feat for a city plagued by many of the same ills as Philadelphia - high crime, bad schools, abandoned factories.
Instead of fleeing Chicago, working-class and upper-income families are buying newly constructed houses, or condominiums carved out of old warehouses, department stores and office buildings.
Credit for starting the boom and sustaining its development goes to the leadership of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley Jr., who made housing construction for all income groups a key part of his economic-development strategy.
Daley's administration created innovative partnerships with private developers. One of the most successful examples of their cooperative efforts is the Chicago Parade of Homes.
Chicago's first Parade of Homes in 1992 was a radical experiment in using a marketing technique traditionally associated with suburban subdivisions.
Five builders put up models on land obtained from the city for a virtual song, and used them to pre-sell 40 houses on the remaining lots. Meanwhile, the city made street improvements in the surrounding neighborhoods, and offered low-interest home-improvement loans to existing residents.
The parade drew an appreciative crowd. ``It was a bit of a challenge, but we sold all the Parade of Homes houses,'' said Dan McClane, president of the Chicago Builders Association.
